LETTER: Lighting scheme concerns ignored

Published:18:00Saturday 13 June 2015

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AS YOU report, the lighting scheme was criticised by residents of Hotham Park House. The reason is this.

All of us, some who have lived here for 30 years or more, bought into a property in the middle of a park which was unlit, deserted and quiet at night, and where the council used to lock the pedestrian gates at dusk to keep it so.

The lighting installed as a requirement of the café opening in the evenings will bring people directly past our entrance gates at night, possibly returning later a little over-refreshed. It is quite a walk from the car park to the café, without any provision being made for people with walking difficulties, so our fear is that cars will follow the now well-lit drive past the house to the cafe, although it is ‘No Entry’. Arun have said they will ‘monitor’ this, although as there is never an Arun employee in the park past late afternoon, and they have not installed CCTV, we wonder how this is to happen.

We proposed an alternative pedestrian route through the park away from the house, which Arun dismissed for specious reasons because they had already decided on this particular scheme, although they insist that an email I received just before Christmas – a typical stunt – beginning ‘I am writing to inform you…’ is a consultation!

Arun have shown arrogance and bad faith in changing a long-established situation for us who live here, and ignoring our concerns.